I know I am probably being unreasonable but please can you help me anyway?

My DH needs to advertise for an admin role at his work. The person who is currently there is only okay so it is no great loss but without someone making up the invoices etc he is going to be working even longer hours than normal.

I really want to get the advert in the paper this week so that hopefully the new start begins and there can be a couple of days handover. It would make my DH's life so much easier if that could happen without him having too involved.

Without your help it is unlikely that I will get the advert in the paper before Friday.....what do I need to put?

All I know so far is the usual stuff, time keeping, accuracy, and I think there is an important system called SAGE.

It is a kind of book keeping role really but if the person was quick at picking up technical knowledge there is potential for their role in the office to really grow.

You don't know what skills, attributes or qualifications the candidates need. None of us are going to be able to tell you. Will your husband's company appreciate a non-employee putting a recruitment ad in a paper for them?

Will your husband's company appreciate a non-employee putting a recruitment ad in a paper for them?Ah, I had assumed that husband owned the business (as that was the only scenario where I could imagine the OP placing an ad on his behalf).

You need a proper job description before you can advertise, otherwise your advert will be wooly, you will get 34263456 responses and won't be able to sift through them properly, and will probably end up hiring a numpty. Your DH needs to tell you exactly what software packages he uses, alongside Sage.

I am assuming this is your husband's own company. He needs to give you a list of the tasks the person would be expected to do. How big is the company, would the new admin person just be invoicing for you DH, or for 50 consultants and researchers?

You mention that there is room for progression, so do mention that in the advert if it is true.

You seem to think that having an ad in the paper by this Friday will get you the perfect employee by next week - bear in mind that the best person for the job may well be in another job already and have to give notice, so you might want to be flexible on start dates.

PS. I don't want to be rude, but I can ALWAYS tell when the job advert has been written by the MDs wife. Always!

I don't really know what he needs but I'd like to advertise for non specific knowledge as it can't be very hard can it!!! Something possibly technical might be necessary on something called a com pooter.

Seriously if the office person sees this She could get you on bullying and harassment.

There are processes like appraisals for ensuring work standards. Does dh follow them? Shall I guess not or you don't know? Surely dh is competent at employing people for his own business or is he also shit at it?

Get a display or semi display (in a box) advert, and run it for at least a couple of editions. if the paper you are going to use has a dedicated day for job vacancies make sure your advert goes in for that day. Put a closing date for applications in the advert.Give an indication of pay and hours.

The reason I am being vague is because I am aware that this is the internet and don't want to expose information that will expose me, or my DH's company. When DH comes home tonight I can present him with some ideas that we can adapt accordingly. We are then going to give it to a friend who works in HR. This will take less time than starting from scratch. Soon I am going to give birth to another baby. That will mean we have two babies under the age of one and one under the age of three. If my DH has someone already in place who is bloody excellent then it might mean that he can take more than two whole days off for paternity leave. And if the other girl was amazing she would be doing this, not me!

Imagine if you totally cock up and get it all wrong? salary, benefits, hours etc and then your husband is left with 50 candidates that are no good and has to re do it himself anyways. I really can't see it as you being helpful.

Here is the ACAS guidance on recruitment which has templates and examples for job description, personal specifications etc. I always wrote the job description and personal spec first and based the advert on them. If there is an existing description/spec then these should be reviewed.

I personally believe that a salary range should be included in any recruitment advertisement but I've had lots of people disagree with me.

My DH doesn't even know I am doing this. But if I present him with something he can work from it will save him starting from the beginning.

I know you are trying to be helpful but as you know pretty much nothing about the role or the requirements, you are likely to get a big eyeroll from him for this. Well, if he's like me, that is. If he's nicer he'll say thank you very much and then file in bin.

It takes about 5 minutes flat to write a job advert if you know what you are doing. He can do it.

If he doesn't know what he's doing, then he needs to prepare a Job Description and a Person Specification. This again only takes a few minutes if you are on the ball and understand the role. It's extremely helpful then, both in writing the advert and then in shortlisting applicants and deciding which to interview, and then picking the 'winner' at the end.

Job description - duties of the role. Hours. Pay. Etc as other people have stated.Person specification - skills and qualities the person needs. Can split into 'essential' - those are ones they will not be considered if they don't have. 'Desirable' - puts them above other candidates but are something you can compromise on, the ideal person has them all.

(so you want someone with some experience not just theory, who can use accounts software, it'll be nice if they've used Sage before but you'd be willing to train someone if they've used something else.)

This helps you clarify the ad.

Ads are free on the official jobcentre site. I know people knock it from a jobseekers point of view, but it's how we recruit all our staff, works well for us.